XCOM: Field Notes
by SuperBiasedMan
Summary: Aliens have attacked earth, and even though we know so little about them we must repel the threat if Earth is to survive. These are the stories of the brave foot soldiers, carrying out the missions to keep humanity safe. Note: Though names of characters are references to real life people and characters, they are not directly referencing those personalities and
1. Prologue: Mission 1 Princess Merida

I regret accepting this mission already. Well that ain't true, I wanted the opportunity... But I do regret not demanding that jackass wasn't reassigned. He's looking over at me. God, not again. I shouldn't have to deal with this tripe.

"Heyy, Merida."  
"What."

He barely even tries to look like he's actually offended, "Is that all you've got to say to a fellow soldier when I just wanted to ask a question?" The massive pride he gets from calling himself a soldier is just sad.

I sigh angrily, I don't like being snippy or rude, but he's worn me thin all the way through training. "What is it Travis."

"We're meant to use surnames to talk, right chief?" he turns to talk to our leader on this first operation. He's just as inexperienced as us but Scott was chosen to be in charge for the promise he apparently showed during training. No disrespect to him, but I think they just needed to pick somebody and he seemed a fine choice. I hit my targets far more than him and he certainly isn't keen on taking control of this lad.

"It's not chief, it's Scott. And yes we are, Travis. But you're just a special exception," he says grinning a little to himself and turning away to not have to deal with Travis any more. At least I'm not the only one who dislikes him.

Travis just turns back to me, still smiley faced while he shrugs like he doesn't know why people treat him like such an arse. He's been so stupidly eager to have us call him 'Touchdown', we can tell he just invented the name. Wouldn't put it past him to change it just before recruiting too.

Ok, ok focus on the task at hand. The mission is what matters. We're going in practically blind, so I've gotta keep my eyes open for anything I could use. Any weakness to exploit could turn the tide for or against us. Especially since, with their abductions and invasions so far, the aliens know so much about us..

Sitting quietly to me left, Hansen's still studying those maps of the landing site. He's been treating it like a puzzle, making marks and just muttering to himself as he does. But then when I'm taking a look he notices and answers what I'm thinking before I even ask.  
"I'm marking spots of the field with good cover from enemy fire, something we ought to look at in advance I reckon. That way we'll already know where to go in a tight spot."

Scott nods, "Good thinking. Getting to know the field is all we can do to prepare."

Hansen rolls out the map and starts pointing out some good spots for cover. He's found a bunch near the corner on the dock where we'll be landing.

"These shipping containers are tall enough to conceal your whole body, though I wouldn't count on them being enough to stand solid against fire."

Travis decides to break in here as he leans in, "Well it'd be a damn fine shame to conceal that rockin body." I assume he followed that with a cheeky wink but I was too busy jamming my foot into his crotch to see.

"Merida!" Scott's eager to respond sternly now, but he's obviously not blaming me for it, "Don't injure him, at least not until we're back in base."

Me and Hansen just chuckle while Travis doubles over in pain. It takes my mind off the impending mission, if only for a little while.

"Alright" the intercom crackles, "We're here."

The mood turns somber as we land. The aliens are probably preoccupied with their abduction and not expecting our appearance. This is the first time we'll be really fighting back.

Scott orders Hansen and Travis to move out first. Before I can follow, Scott stops me to talk "Look, lay off Travis. He may be- **is** a moron, but he's one of the team. And he just might save your life some day."

"Sir I-well... ok." I nod reluctantly, it's not like I can try harder than I have already.

"But don't be afraid to kick him in the nads, I'd like to see that again." I grin as we both hop off our transport and hide up against some cargo left on the dock. I look around, but there's no sign of those things yet. It just looks like a normal dock, aside from the creepy quiet.

Scott heads out first, looking out over a pile of boxes. We all spread out slowly. We coulda landed in a better position, starting from right on the corner of the docks leaves us no room to retreat. And then I see them, aliens scattering off to my right. It looks like they were gathering some of the poor souls they abduct but I guess we spooked em to run inside a nearby building. I would be pleased about having a face for their kind but their speedy disappearance means they must've spotted me too.  
"Hostiles, 2 o'clock," I hiss into my mic, letting the others know too.

"Jesus, what are they doing to these people?" Hansen calls back. He must've come across one of the other victims the aliens hadn't collected. I do not want to see how they look up close. The best we can do is keep it from happening to more people.

Travis runs up to me, looking out for the ones I spotted before. Oddly polite for him, he only winks at me with his smarmy face instead of talking. And then we were all just sitting there waiting for a good shot.

"Hey, I think I heard som-" I have no time to listen to Scott cause I see one of the aliens charge forward. I fire straight away and hit it cleanly. I can see shots from Hansen and Travis both fly past too but their aim is pretty piss poor and the creature just limps right into cover, still alive.

"Oh god," Scott's voice comes back again, "We're cornered."

I turn over to Scott, and I can just see more aliens disappearing into another building at the opposite side of the dock. They're already trying to surround us.

I see Scott start running back towards us, he seems to be losing his nerve already. Suddenly a bright glowing beam of light shoots right by my head. I get to see the laser technology those aliens were using up close and it's shocking. It melts a line right through an empty oil drum. Bloody luckily, Scott was not in its path. Instead I see him pop his head up and return his own fire, whipping my head around, I'm just in time to see the wounded alien go down.

"Hah! Has anyone got a visual?" Scott calls excitetedly into his mic, even with his burst of confidence he's shy about peeking out of cover.

Still staring at the creature, I see it's lying motionless, "Yes sir. It's down alright, confirmed kill." Immediately I feel relief wash through me. I dunno about the others, but up til now I was worried they could've had far more resilience than us. But if two shots took that one down, I think we really can make it.

"Heh, don't get too full of yourself chief, I've got the next one," All of a sudden, I see Travis leap over the boxes next to me like an unruly runt, running into unknown territory."Well it looks like I found our next victim!"

"What the hell are you doing Travis? Back down, NOW!"

"Don't worry, I got this coward, BOOOOM BABY" I hear gunfire, but when I look up, Travis just seems to be shaking his gun irritated. "Really? You piece of crap gun. The thing's still out there dudes, we just gotta flush it out."

"Travis, that kick I gave you earlier will be heavenly compared to what I'll do later. Hansen! Can you cover me?"

"Sure thing Merida, just be careful, alright?" He readies his shot, looking towards the alien Travis fired at and I hop my cover to sprint up that route, eyeing a safe spot across from him.

Travis just sneers, "What's the matter princess? Didn't you sign up for th-"


	2. Chapter 1: Mission 1 Michael Scott

No. No no no no no. Not on the goddamn first mission, not already. We haven't even done anything yet but... but.

"Scott? Sir, are you there?"

How bad is it? I'm assuming the worst right? It can't be as bad as that, surely, surely it can't.

"Sir!"

"H-hansen. How is... what's the status?"

"I'm afraid she's down sir, doesn't look there's any chance for recovery."

"Fuck."

"Sir, we nee-"

"FUUUUUUUUUUUCK" I don't even look as I spray a desperate stream of bullets towards the aliens. Those pieces of shit deserve every last ounce of metal they get in them.

"SCOTT. SIR, STOP IT NOW."

I don't bother listening to Hansen but as my gun empties, silence descends again.

"Oh Jesus, oh please no."

I didn't expect that punk to take this so poorly.

"Scott, sir... you just hit Travis."

Oh, oh damn no not more. One soldier down is bad enough. Ok, ok breathe Michael. Relax, you can lead them through this. There's always a plan.

"Hansen. How badly was he hit?"

"He'll live sir, but he wont survive anything else."

"Shitshit, guys! Help!"

Leaning out of my cover, I see the two aliens emerging from the shadows to try and get Travis. Me and Hansen both fire, driving them back and keeping them from getting At Travis.

"Right, we have to keep moving. Our first mission has to show them what we can do."

"Scott! On your flank!"

Over on the left I see more damn aliens advancing from further down the dock, this time we don't have time to drive them away before their lasers fly towards Travis, narrowly missing him. Instead they melt a huge hole in the shipping container he's pressing his whole body against. Travis panics, he can't handle being in the centre of all this gunfire he leaps into the empty shipping container to cower against the side of it.

"Travis! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Leave him sir, at least til we've dealt with some of the trouble out here. For now, what do you want us to do?"

Hansen has a point I guess, there's not much Travis can do while he's pinned in like that. So what **can** we do? They're totally outnumbering us now. Pressing forward in either direction could get us shot by the group that we don't pursue, and splitting from Hansen is even riskier.

"Scott, we _need_ to act."

That damn Hansen is far too pushy for his own good, he can't appreciate the need to assess a situation before making tactical decisions.

"With all due respect sir, fuck this."

What!? Suddenly I see Hansen running in front of me, pulling out his grenade, of course! That science woman said not to use them too recklessly, cause of some bullshit about preserving alien tech. But I think this is a good time to blow some alien scum to high hell. Hansen takes cover and lobs the grenade over to the alien that attacked Travis, blowing it to bits.

One more down. We can do this, we can do-What. What is _that_ thing. Normally all these alien things look the same, just grey, spry and short, with large round heads and massive eyes. This one, this is different. It's head is glowing purple, and it looks like some strange purple line is hovering in the air behind it, as if a string is trailing from its skull.

"Hansen, behind you!"

Hansen whips around, luckily the new alien still seems to be weirdly dazed, giving Hansen plenty of time to line up his shot and nail the sucker right in its glowing head. The purple glow fades from the alien along with any sign of movement.

"Cheers for the heads up sir, what's the plan now?"

"Glad to know you're following orders again," a bit more at ease, I start to take action. I advance on the aliens to my left, hidden somewhere in in the unknown depths of the dock.

"I follow orders when they're provided sir."

I wish I could chastise him for that, but he's not wrong. I need to keep my heeeeeshhhhiiiitt. I get into cover_ just_ in time to dodge more fire from above me. Heh, not only did it miss, I now have a clear view of it.

"Guys, I can, um," Travis's voice breaks out over the radio nervously, "I can provide cover."  
Out of the corner of my eye I see him step slowly out of his hidey hole. I guess his over confidence is good for something if it can get him up and about that fast. He looks around frantically, and then he spots the one that fired at me. God damn, even though Travis must be barely able to see it the blasted alien, he manages it. A burst of fire drops the creature to the ground, that's one more dead. This is it, we're on a roll now.

"Alright! Alriiight!" Travis cheers are followed by him jumping back into the empty container, "I gotta reload, but save some alien for me."

"Ok Hansen, there's one more we spotted, back at the end of the dock. Travis, give him cover while he pursues. I'm going to make sure there's no more waiting on this end to surprise us."

"Sounds like a plan sir," Hansen salutes, rounding the corner.

"Ok, I can manage that." Travis begins to emerge from the container, creeping around the corner.

I turn to search up along the dock. I'm sure I can hear something. They must be taunting and laughing at me. Or, maybe it's afraid? I inch along the shipping containers, trying to watch for movement anywhere.

I hear more gunfire, human, not alien.

"Hah! Got it sir."

"Good, now get on over here so we can finish the sweAGH," a laser just hit my gun, instantly superheating it and burning my hand. I drop the useless weapon, and look up just in time to see that round little head disappear behind a wall.

Nice try. I grab my grenade and pull out the pin. Here's an emergency for them. I fling the grenade all the way up, it arcs perfectly to land on the other side of the wall. As it explodes I can see pieces of alien fly up in the air.

"Travis, Hansen. Retain caution while we finish our sweep of the area for hostiles, but I think it's safe to say, mission accomplished."


	3. Chapter 2: Mission 2 Chuck Hansen

Seeing a city block as empty as this is devastating, makes me want to blast that alien scum into oblivion. Too bad in the commander's infinite wisdom he stuck me with this pissy ass sniper rifle. I'm gonna be stranded way off in the background if they expect me to use this thing. If only I hadn't been forced to take this bloody 'promotion'.

"Hansen, move out."

"Yes sir." Wanker, I was sure I'd be leading on this mission after my performance last time. I picked up the pieces to save our asses when Scott fell apart, but instead we both get promoted just the same.

"Alright Spinelli, we're going in," At least there's the two new recruits, they seem pretty capable.

"Finally, let's bust some heads!" She takes almost as much pleasure in this as I do, but she hasn't seen them for real yet, only gotten descriptions from what we've told her.

"Out on the street we're exposed, so the plan is to take up positions in the building itself and from in there we fire out on the aliens. But we gotta be sure that there's none waiting in there to ambush us."

"Yeah yeah, I got it," she presses herself up against the building's external wall and peers in, "Looks clear. Hey hey, it's an offy! I'm buying us all a round of beers when we're done here."

"Easy tiger, we're not even started yet," the other new recruit,Watson says as she runs up to leap through the off licence window and crouch behind a table, "And I'm more of a bourbon gal anyway."

"Focus please, I want you trying to spot aliens. Not eyeing the drinks."

"Yes Scott sir, no visual yet."

My turn now, following through the same window, I hop the table to take up a spot behind the counter and then I see them, far away on the other side of the building. Immediately they scurry out before I can aim my clumsy ass sniper rifle at them.

"They were in here sir, but they've climbed back out to the street."

"Good, I'm coming in," Now that the danger has passed, of course, "Watson, make sure we don't lose sight of the enemy."

"Not a problem sir," she says advancing forward, "I see a couple more, they're hopping out the window on your side, Scott and Spinelli."

"I see one, heh. Time to go boom," I can hear Spinelli pull the pin as she tosses her grenade towards the fleeing aliens. I can't really see where it landed from here but I can hear her cheering.

"Spinelli! Back in cover, you don't know if you got both of them,"

"Lighten up Scott, I've got it,"

"There's one bearing down on you NOW," Scott replied, frantic.

"Do you need supp-" I don't get to finish before I hear a boom. Not again god damn it. Not already. But then I hear laughing on the radio.

"Heheh, I do love this new shotgun."

"Holy shit Scott, did you hit in right in the face point blank?"

"Well it ran right by, woulda been pretty hard for me to miss."

The two of them climb into the building while Scott continues congratulating himself. He almost didn't hear Watson spot another two escaping through the far end of the building, "That's six we've seen now, all in here? And how many more do you think there are outside?"

"Eight spotted in here now," I say as I watch another pair scramble out, "I don't like this. Are they intentionally drawing us forward?"

We all see a purple flash from outside the window again, but before anyone react, one of the purple glowing aliens reappears from the side and fires at Watson before anyone can react. From its position, it has her flanked. Her cover's no good when the alien lands its shot. She crumples to the ground, dead instantly. She didn't even get to see her killer.

"Fuck. You," Spinelli rises up from her cover to fire two bursts from her gun, one to punctuate each word. The alien had left itself right out in the open with nothing to protect it from her fire as she tears it apart.

Scott breaks the silence, "Nice work Spinelli."

"Fuck you too," she takes cover again, going quiet.

Once more we see purple light up the window. Scott fires out at it blindly, but it's pointless.

"We need to get a good view on them sir, not just spew bullets randomly."

"There!" Spinelli calls out as she braces against the pillar that makes up her cover. The alien fires through and damages her, but she stays strong and survives.

I take a shot with my rifle but the gun's damned near useless when the creatures are this close. Instead Scott fires again and badly wounds the creature, making the glow from its head disappear. It runs past the window again, disappearing out of sight.

"Where did it go?" Scott calls out frantically.

"Shut u-aghhh," appearing at another window, it shoots at Spinelli again, "You COCK."

Luckily the alien left itself wide open for Scott to hop out the window and unload another shotgun blast. "This damn gun," he says, laughing again as the alien falls to the ground in front of him.

"Spinelli, how you holding up?"

"I'll survive, but it's gonna be you buyin me a round now Hansen, got that?"

"That I can do mate."

"Alright," Scott climbs back through the window, "Everyone reload and take good cover. Can't let them catch us like that again."

As we prepare, I see the purple flash by again. What IS the point of it? It must allow for some kind of tactical advantage, but what?

"Ok, I've got it," Scott speaks up again, "Time for us to flank them. They're all coming at us from the left, right? So Spinelli, you can head out the right side of the building and push forward, to catch them before they sneak up."

"Sir, are you sure that's wise? She's already taken shots twice!"

"I know what I'm doing Hansen, she's safer moving than waiting to see another one of those take shots at her from a window."

"You don't need to baby me Hansen, I'll be fine," Spinelli butts in, already heading for the door. Her walk looks shaky, "You can look after Scott instead."

There's not much point in arguing, it's the only plan we've got.

"Now, the two of us can move up to make sure they focus on us," Scott says barrelling further up the building and crouching by a stack of shelves, "Well shit, the four of them are ready and waiting for us out there."

I follow up, and I can see them all out there too, looking in at us. I could see the purple glowing alien, and a strange line leading from his head back to the head of one of the other aliens. Maybe that could be their commander? This time I decide to pull out my hand gun instead of the cumbersome rifle.

"What are you doing Hansen?"

"Just trust me sir," I answer, raising my gun to shoot at the possible commander alien. Unlike with the rifle, the handgun hits my target and wounds him. But when Scott also shoots, he misses entirely and the alien is still standing. Even though the alien's upright, it doesn't look healthy. The purple glow fades, and then the commander's head starts glowing purple instead, with a line tracing back from his head off to some other alien. What the hell?

While I'm distracted, behind me I hear Scott running. I turn to see him leap out a window and catch another alien trying to sneak around. I'm starting to feel more anxious about this spot, they can easily surround us while we're waiting on Spinelli to get a position.

"Oh shitshitshitballs. Shit fucking balls, FUUAGHHHK."

"Spinelli!? What is it?" I see her burst through the door to our right, she looks even more pained than before, it's a miracle she's still standing. Even more worryingly though, she looks like she's about to lose it. And just behind her, through the doorway, I can make out another alien. It must have caught her trying to flank them, "Scott, she needs support!"

I run across towards her immediately, firing my handgun on the alien. I can hear Scott follow me but the panic makes us both sloppy and the shots just warn the alien to duck out of the way. When the two of us get close we look around frantically for where the alien has gone to, but it's Scott that finds out.

"EARGHHH GOOHHHD. NOOOO!" Scott screams in agony from the ground. I didn't even see it, but he's taken a shot in the chest. He's not dead, but it wont be easy getting him back to the base alive.

Spinelli rushes out at our attacker, seeing the alien still out crouching by the door. She empties out all of her ammo as she fires again and again, but she's so frazzled she doesn't hit the creature standing in front of her once. Instead, it calmly raises it gun to blast her, and Spinelli finally can't take any more.

I'm standing back, in shock. I've seen all this go down, and now it's just me. The alien hasn't turned it's attention to me yet. All I need is one good shot.

One fucking shot, and that thing will go down.

Boom.

"Hansen, aaarghhh,"

I hit nothing.

Boom.

"HANSEEEN."

Nothing.

Boom.

...

Nothing.


End file.
